How can I rewrite (w^3x^4y^6)^2 within parentheses without exponents?

2 Answers
Apr 10, 2017

See the entire solution process below:

Explanation:

We can rewrite the expression within the parenthesis without exponents as:

(w*w*w*x*x*x*x*y*y*y*y*y*y)^2

We can now rewrite this as:

(w*w*w*x*x*x*x*y*y*y*y*y*y)(w*w*w*x*x*x*x*y*y*y*y*y*y)

Or

(w*w*w*w*w*w*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x*y*y*y*y*y*y*y*y*y*y*y*y)

Or

(w*w*w*w*w*w)(x*x*x*x*x*x*x*x)(y*y*y*y*y*y*y*y*y*y*y*y)

We can order the list of w, x, y terms for multiplication in
29,002,073,100 ways.

Explanation:

I'm going to take a bit of a different take on this question.

We start with (w^3x^4y^6)^2 and distribute the square:

w^(3xx2)x^(4xx2)y^(6xx2)=w^6x^8y^12

This means there are a total of 6 w terms, 8 x terms, and 12 y terms all multiplying each other. Since we multiplication in this sense has the commutative power (in that ab=ba) and so the letters can be written in any order, I can write:

  • wxywxy...
  • xyywxy...

or any other order, just so long as I list all the variables together as being multiplied (I'm ignoring ordering via brackets)

And so there are 26 variables in total with a group of 6, a group of 8, and a group of 12. This means we can take 26! as the numerator of a fraction which will express the ways 26 terms can be arranged, and then divide by 6!8!12! to eliminate counting of duplicate ordering:

(26!)/(6!8!12!)=>

(26xx25xxcancelcolor(blue)(24)xx23xxcancelcolor(violet)22^11xxcancelcolor(orange)(21)xxcancelcolor(pink)(20)xx19xxcancelcolor(purple)(18)^3xx17xxcancelcolor(brown)(16)xxcancelcolor(green)(15)xx14xx13xxcancelcolor(red)(12!))/(cancelcolor(blue)(6)xxcancelcolor(green)(5)xxcancelcolor(blue)(4)xxcancelcolor(green)(3)xxcancelcolor(brown)(2xx8)xxcancelcolor(orange)(7)xxcancelcolor(purple)(6)xxcancelcolor(pink)(5xx4)xxcancelcolor(orange)(3)xxcancelcolor(violet)(2)xxcancelcolor(red)(12!))=>

26xx25xx23xx11xx19xx3xx17xx14xx13=>

29,002,073,100